In some of today's server systems, one or more compute nodes coupled to a switch may separately have a management controller. The management controller may be referred to as a baseband management controller (BMC). The management controller may have its own media access control (MAC) address to allow the management controller to provide various types of network services. The types of network services may include usage of various types of remote management protocols such as those associated with the intelligent platform management interface (IPMI), the file transfer protocol (FTP), the hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), the remote desktop protocol (RDP).
Typically, a management controller may couple to a local access network (LAN) on motherboard (LOM) in order to gain network connectivity. For example, the management controller may be able to send and receive network traffic such as Ethernet traffic by sharing a physical port of the LOM with a host OS using a sideband technology such as one described by the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) in the Network Controller Sideband Interface (NC-SI) Specification, version 1.0, published in July 2009 and/or later versions of revisions. Ethernet traffic (e.g., Ethernet frames) may be arranged according to communication protocols or standards such those described in one or more Ethernet standards promulgated by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). For example, one such Ethernet standard may include IEEE 802.3-2008, Carrier sense Multiple access with Collision Detection (CSMA/CD) Access Method and Physical Layer Specifications, Published in December 2008 (hereinafter “IEEE 802.3”)